Marked as the Tyrant's Daughter-in-Law - Chapter 22

The wave of the crowd brushed past my shoulder.

Thud-

Someone’s shoulder collided with mine, and I saw a fan fall to the floor.

“Ah.”

I reflexively bent down with an “oof,” trying to pick up the fan.

But the foot of the person who dropped the fan stepped on it as I reached for it.

I flinched and looked up at that someone.

“……”

A girl with a similar build to mine.

Through the elaborate purple mask, I saw haughty black eyes. And beautifully styled red hair with a lovely lace dress.

She was looking down at me while firmly stepping on the fan I was trying to pick up.

Although I hesitated for a moment because of the mask, it was clearly young lady Matzert.

‘I told uncle there wouldn’t be anyone to bully me.’

Someone to bully me….. There is one after all.

“Rustic straw-colored hair and green eyes. Hands as rough as sandpaper……”

Her lips curled up as she recognized me and she muttered.

“……I suppose you’ve just come up from the countryside? My lady?”

I heard the Matzert clique behind her giggling.

I slowly removed my hand from the fan, stood up, and faced the Matzert young lady.

“By any chance, is that mask.”

She tilted her head and asked.

“It’s not made from a horse’s horseshoe, is it?”

The laughter of the Matzert clique was heard once again.

I stared at the Matzert young lady with intense eyes.

“Do you know the saying that excess is worse than lack? In that sense, a mask made from a horse’s horseshoe might be better than that purple jeweled boomerang covering your face.”

At that, the Matzert young lady also glared at me and raised her hand towards me.

As if wearing a mask made her fearless, she opened her mouth.

“Ha, you country bumpkin, how dare you……”

“……”

And as she was about to push me with that hand, someone wrapped their arms around me and pulled me towards them.

Then I met eyes with the person who supported my staggering waist.

At that moment, I couldn’t help but open my mouth in surprise.

“Mas……?”

And slowly, the boy’s facial features came into clear view.

The boy under the chandelier wasn’t wearing a white mask covering his whole face, but a black mask covering only his eyes, and in the eye part of the mask were not black eyes, but brilliant blue ones.

He just overlapped with Mas in my mind, but it wasn’t Mas.

This silver hair was definitely…… Crown Prince Briton.

‘Why did I think of Mas again?’

My heart pounded at the sudden reunion with Briton.

Briton let me lean on him for a few seconds, then helped me stand straight.

“Your Highness……?!”

The Matzert young lady’s eyebrows shot up in surprise as she recognized the identity of the boy who protected me.

It seemed she had also recognized Briton.

“Laying hands on a stranger at a ball, that’s not proper etiquette.”

Briton spoke to her with a stern expression, his eyebrows set.

The Matzert young lady, who had been staring blankly at Briton for a moment, protested as if wronged.

“Your Highness, it was this girl who bumped my shoulder and made me drop my fan. And how can you take her side in front of me? You know how much I……”

But Briton cut off the young lady’s resentful words.

“I don’t know who you are because of the mask.”

At those words, the Matzert young lady’s eyes shook greatly.

Although she was wearing a mask, there was no way he wouldn’t recognize the young lady, yet Briton was saying he didn’t know her.

He spoke coldly.

“If you treat my fiancée rudely again, you’ll regret it.”

It was a frigid voice of warning as if frost was in the air.

“How could……”

As the Matzert young lady let out a whimpering voice, her clique behind her looked around nervously.

Having finished speaking to the young lady, Briton held my hand and looked at me.

The blue eyes of the boy behind the black mask were gentle.

“Are you alright, my lady?”

The stiffness he had shown towards the Matzert young lady melted away like snow, and the boy’s voice was as gentle as cherry blossoms floating on a spring day.

☁⊹₊┈ㆍ┈ ▫ ┈ㆍ🌱ㆍ┈ ▫ ┈ㆍ┈₊⊹☁

Briton, holding my hand, led me out of the ballroom.

A stone path crossed through the garden, and after walking for a while holding his hand, we came upon a small lake.

The moon in the sky was reflected in the center of the lake.

Only when we reached a rock shaped like a long bench did Briton release my hand.

The rock was too low for adults to sit on, but it was just the right height for children like us.

Briton sat me down on the rock and then leaned down slightly to examine me.

“……Are you alright?”

The blue eyes of the boy behind the mask rippled with concern.

I nodded with a dazed expression.

“Yes, thanks to Your Highness’s timely help…… nothing happened.”

At my words, Briton seemed to show a relieved expression before raising his hand to remove his mask.

Though it was a young boy’s face, his cool and beautiful eyes and high nose bridge were revealed under the moonlight.

I also raised my hand to remove the mask covering my face.

Honestly, I regret not being able to flick Lariel’s forehead with this mask.

‘Actually, I thought it wouldn’t matter even if she pushed me then.’

With the strength I had from pulling red beets, there was no way I would have budged from that small hand.

Still, seeing her trembling with anger was a bit satisfying.

“Will Your Highness be alright?”

At those words, Briton seemed to tilt his head.

“What do you mean, my lady?”

“The Matzert young lady. I heard she was close to Your Highness…… and she seemed quite betrayed.”

The corner of Briton’s lips twisted coldly.

His eyes were gentle as always, but somehow a chilly air seemed to flow around him.

“My acquaintance with the Matzert young lady is no different from that with other nobles. It’s merely a relationship between ruler and subject that can be managed with authority if they overstep their bounds……”

Briton’s voice was soft and gentle, like sweet milk at first glance.

But at some point, a cool sensation ran down my spine, and my body hair stood on end without me realizing it.

“If it still concerns you, my lady, I’ll make sure to handle it thoroughly.”

“Ha-handle? That’s not necessary……”

Briton Aslet, is he just a kind and gentle child?

He always shows me a gentle attitude, but sometimes when I see this cold-blooded side, I get chills.

Feeling somewhat choked up, I spoke after a while.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince seems to be very kind to me. We certainly met for the first time at the imperial palace, but…… it’s as if we’ve known each other all along.”

There was a moment of silence at my words.

“You always want to help me.”

At those words, Briton’s eyes rippled deeply.

“Is that so.”

I looked at Briton.

The night lake was reflected in Briton’s blue eyes.

“I……”

As the boy opened his mouth, a cool breeze blew, tickling the waves of the lake.

But I couldn’t hear that voice.

“……!”

Because four people who had been hiding suddenly rose from the middle of the gently rising waves.

They were wearing bluish clothes and held swords in both hands.

Briton’s eyebrows, which had parted his lips, tensed greatly.

“It’s an attack!”

Briton hurriedly pushed me back and stood in front of them.

“Run away, my lady.”

From Briton’s tense voice, I could tell. At least, these people who appeared before us were not allies.

Seeing the blade gleaming in the moonlight, I felt a chill in my gut.

I had seen battle scenes in novels to the point of nausea, but actually seeing a sword revealing hostility toward me made me feel like I was going to faint.

“No! Let’s run away together.”

But even in this situation, I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Briton behind.

‘He’s just a kid too, how can I run away alone!’

And even if I ran away leaving Briton, I realized I couldn’t stop one or two of the four people from chasing after me.

“……”

They gradually tightened their encirclement around us.

The blades seemed well-sharpened, gleaming coldly in the moonlight, and just looking at them gave me a terrible feeling.

This was a secluded lake with few people around.

‘Who on earth are these people attacking us?’

Why are they attacking us?

Briton, with his hardened expression, seemed to know everything, but there was no way to ask in such an urgent situation.

“The bloodline of Parmes, who ascended to the throne through bloodshed……”

At that moment, one man put strength into his sword-wielding hand and shouted.

“I will cut it off with these hands!”